NBA Playgrounds 2 Rated by Australian Classification Board

April 17, 2018Written by Tyler Treese

NBA Playgrounds 2 is in development. While not officially announced, the sequel to 2017’s arcade basketball title was rated by the Australian Classification Board. Details are currently scarce, but we do know that the sequel will receive a “G” rating down under. It also has Mad Dog Games listed as the publisher, with Saber Interactive once again developing. Online interactivity is also listed, so expect online play similar to the first game.

We’ll have more on NBA Playgrounds 2 once its officially announced. For more on the original, check out my NBA Playgrounds review. Here’s a snippet of what I had to say about the digitally released basketball game:

While the lame amount of solo offerings was disappointing, the ridiculously basic online play is downright crippling. In one of the most baffling online choices I’ve ever seen, players can only play random matches against other players. There’s no invite system or any way to edit how a match is played, just jumping into one meaningless match after another. Considering the main appeal of NBA Playgrounds is to play matches against friends, it really destroys any longevity the title could’ve had. An “online tournament” mode is coming to the game in the future, which will hopefully add this feature in, but there’s absolutely no good reason for the game to be launched in such a barren state.

The debut installment of NBA Playgrounds gets the fundamentals right, but fails to impress elsewhere. From the shockingly feature poor online play to a single-player campaign that can be completed in a few hours, there just isn’t enough content to support the gameplay. It’s exciting to think about what a potential sequel could offer, but what’s currently being sold is a good, but definitely not great, arcade game that doesn’t manage to outdo its fantastic predecessors.